The 3rd IHG was a very interesting organization, especially when one considers that at First Newtonia, many of the men in the regiment just months before had been in Drew's regiment of Cherokee volunteers, thus the heavy fighting between the indian regiments. We do not have a definitive work on the Union Indian Brigade other than what Wiley Britton wrote, though a good source it does not tell us what we need to know about the regiments and the men in them. We have rosters, names with various spellings and very likely incorrect in many ways. We have but one day book we can use as a primary source from the 3rd IHG, yet we have little information about William A. Phillips himself or his records, order and letter books. We know that the Department of Indian Affairs handled their quartermaster and pay records but little else. We also know that the Kansas Department pretty much used these regiments as a means to fend of any incursions into Kansas from south of the Kansas - I.T. state line. They were not well equipped, were reasonably well led by SOME vigorous officers. Otherwise they pretty much were just stuck out there and left to their own devices so long as they kept raids from Watie and others from becoming too serious of a problem. The IT was very much a side show to a sideshow, yet to those who were there it was a war unto itself.